Corruption

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The mystery deepens. Late last Friday, Trump summarily fired the State Department Inspector General, Steve Linick. While in US law as it now stands, the president has the power to fire pretty much anyone in the executive, if he fired Linick as an act of retaliation for one of Linick’s […]

Corruption

Trump, Inc.: How Jared Kushner is Tackling White House Coronavirus Response — Without Any Evident Experience

ProPublica

by Andrea Bernstein, WNYC | – This story was co-published with WNYC. (ProPublica) – On April 2, Jared Kushner uncharacteristically took to the podium to speak at the White House’s daily coronavirus briefing. He’d been given the task, he said, of assisting Vice President Mike Pence’s Coronavirus Task Force with supply chain issues. “The president,” […]

Corruption

Could Trump end up in Court over his Disastrous Mishandling of Coronavirus?

John Feffer

(Foreign Policy in Focus and Hankyoreh) – Donald Trump said that he would make America number one again. And now the United States leads the world in coronavirus infections and COVID-19 deaths. It is a dubious achievement. How could this have happened? The United States is supposed to have one of the best medical systems […]

Corruption

Protesters slam ‘Crime Minister” Netanyahu’s Assault on Democracy in Israel, Praise Palestinian-Israeli Medics fighting Coronavirus

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Some two thousand demonstrators gathered in formation in Rabin Square on Sunday in Tel Aviv for a “black flag” protest against the “destruction of democracy” by indicted prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. They carefully kept six feet apart and wore surgical masks imprinted with the slogan “Crime Minister.” So reports Omar […]

Authoritarianism

Strange Attractors: Why is Trump’s Covid-19 Train Wreck so Mesmerizing to Corporate Media and the rest of Us?

Rebecca Gordon

(Tomdispatch.com) – My partner and I have been fighting about politics since we met in 1965. I was 13. She was 18 and my summer camp counselor. (It was another 14 years before we became a couple.) We spent that first summer arguing about the Vietnam War. I was convinced that the U.S. never should […]

Corruption

When you Work for Corporations you Don’t Care about People: How Wisconsin GOP Forced in-person Voting in the Midst of a Pandemic to Suppress Urban Dem Vote

Common Dreams

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer | – (Commondreams.org) – As footage of Wisconsin’s crowded polling stations flooded the internet Tuesday, public health officials and civil rights advocates condemned the state’s Supreme Court and Republican legislative leaders for allowing in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic and thwarting Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ last-minute efforts to address voter […]

Corruption

Jared Kushner, With No Government Background, Scolds States for Requesting Supplies From National Equipment Stockpile

Common Dreams

By Julia Conley, staff writer | – (Commondreams.org) – Progressives expressed shock at the Trump administration’s latest indication that it intends to provide little assistance to states where thousands of people have contracted the coronavirus, after Jared Kushner, senior advisor and son-in-law to President Donald Trump, made his first appearance as a key member of […]

Corruption

The Contango Tango: SecState Pompeo Pressures Saudis to Raise Gasoline Prices, Harming US Consumers

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a phone call with Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman on Tuesday. So reports Sam Meredith at CNBC. Then the State Department issued a statement on Wednesday that said, “Secretary Pompeo and the Crown Prince focused on the need to maintain stability in global […]

Corruption

There’s a name for Trump playing down the threat and failing to take action against the virus: Institutional betrayal

The Conversation

By Anne P. DePrince and Joan M. Cook | – U.S. intel agencies issued dire, classified warnings to President Trump in January and February about the dangers posed by the coronavirus, according to revelations reported in The Washington Post. For weeks, U.S. communities coast to coast sounded the alarm. They didn’t have enough tests to […]